Myth meets the Mundane: This book is definitely not for everybody. The story places a battle of mythic proportions (literally) on the tawdry streets of Las Vegas. I got a big kick our of the way Powers combined the banal with the mystic (e.g., in one scene, two characters find a location in Vegas by shaking silver dollars in an empty vanilla wafers box, and seeing if they turn up heads). The dialog has the tough-guy quality of a roman noir, but they are discussing tarot cards and moon goddesses. If you like that kind of thing, then you will probably enjoy this book.

Retired gambler Scott Crane is forced back into the "game" by the legacy of his father, who had seized control of the Las Vegas gambling empire in the 1940s.

I'm a big fan of [author: Tim Powers]. He has this strange ability to take bizarre and disparate elements and weave them together into a cohesive and engaging story. This particular example of his work involves (among other things) poker, chaos theory, Jungian archetypes, Tarot, and The Fisher King. These things seem to have little or no relation to each other, but it all works, and it does so brilliantly. The best thing he's written, in my opinion. ( )

This is the book that I give friends when I want them to be exposed to Tim Powers, and it hasn't failed me yet. Like most of Powers' work, it posits a "secret" or alternate version of the world, one where poker cards can determine your fate and a Las Vegas mobster can be the Fisher King. But it's also a narrative about family-the wounds of childhood (emotional and physical), the trials of love, and ways the past can haunt you. With compelling and rich characters, an engrossing and intricate mythology, and a fast-paced plot, this is one of my favorite books, re-read regularly. ( )

Last Call is a novel about professional poker players. Well, actually it's really a novel about father-son relationships, coping with loss and grief and the consequences of your past mistakes and facing the prospect on your own eventual death. Well, okay, what it's actually about is the mythology surrounding the Fisher King and Tarot Cards, Bugsy Siegel, the mathematics of the Mandelbrot set and random events, Ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses, beings with the ability to jump from one body to another ... and everything else I said it was about before.

If you're anything like me, you might be hearing more than a few alarm bells at this point. On paper this seems like a recipe for a confused self-indulgent disaster of a book. But I'm pleased to say that - as anybody familiar with Tim Powers' other work might already suspect - the book manages to avoid most, if not all, of the possible mistakes it could have made and finds room to include a gripping plot and some well-drawn and sympathetic characters (and you'll be relieved to discover I was lying about the maths).

In fact, Last Call is one of the best novels I've been introduced to this year.

Scott Crane has a problem. Well, several problems, in fact: he's alcoholic, unemployed, hasn't had any contact with his foster father or sister in years, and his wife died suddenly of a heart attack a few weeks ago (though neighbours have still seen her out in the garden watering the plants) ... but his biggest problem is probably the fact he unwittingly sold his soul during a mysterious poker game over twenty years ago and the winner is coming to collect it very soon. As Scott comes to realise the seriousness of his situation he's drawn back into the shadowy world he grew up in as a child, and together with his neighbour, Arky Mavranos, sets out on a journey to confront his real father and reverse both their fates.

As the novel progresses, a dozen or so other characters are established, each with a convincing voice of their own. And while initially they're all somewhat on their own, Powers does an excellent job in bringing all the different strands together as the plot begins to accelerate. While there's a great deal of world building going on, the exposition is handled smoothly and doesn't ever slow down the pace of events unduly. In a way I was oddly reminded of Neil Gaiman's American Gods - both books explore slightly similar ideas and settings - though anybody who has read my review of that book will likely guess that I found this one rather better.

The book isn't without its flaws: a few elements of the plot, especially in the second half, seem rather contrived, and the ending suffers from being a little rushed and, perhaps as a consequence, a little too pat. (Without wanting to spoil things, I'll say that I had two major issues with the ending, finding one aspect simply unconvincing in terms of human psychology and the other rather unfittingly neat and happy). But these are really only minor problems, and shouldn't be enough to put anybody off reading this book.

I learnt shortly after finishing Last Call that it forms the first part of loose trilogy (along with Expiration Date and Earthquake Weather), but while I'll certainly look at picking those two books up at some point (along with Declare and any other Powers' books I've yet to read) I don't feel that doing so is at all necessary to appreciate this one, which I strongly recommend.